Nassau Campaign

Time Period: March 3-4, 1776

Area: Nassau, Rhode Island area

Explanation: The newly created Continental navy carried out its first and only planned major naval operation of the war.

Esek Hopkins, a Rhode Island farm boy turned sailor, was put in command of the 1st Squadron of the rag-tag navy. He surprised British forces on Nassau (then called Providence or New Providence) by landing a force of U.S. Marines in their first action of the war, an assault on Fort Montagu.

Short and sharp, the raid not only took the fort, but netted 100 cannon and mortars, and captured the governor of the island, Monfort Browne.

In a later prisoner exchange, Browne was swapped for an American officer and went on to command a unit of loyalists.